A computer network is a group of computers, printers, and other network devices linked together by a communication system. Computer networks allow devices within the network to transfer information between one another. A computer network can be a very small, such as two network devices coupled together in close proximity to each other, or extremely large, such as thousands of interconnected network devices spanning the entire globe.
As a computer network grows in size, the ability to efficiently manage the network becomes increasingly difficult. In a large network, also referred to as a wide area network (WAN), the number of devices connected to the network may constantly change. Networking equipment may fail, causing bottlenecks or traffic diversions in the system. Expansions may require higher bandwidth capabilities in certain portions of the network. A network administrator must keep track of such changes and respond accordingly in order to maintain the computer network in proper working order.
One method of organizing a computer network is to arrange network devices, also referred to as nodes, into node clusters or node groups. Node clusters are composed of two or more nodes and are typically created to handle different resources in the network system. For example, one node cluster may be responsible for transferring data files while another node cluster may handle a site's e-mail services. Node clusters also help coordinate and distribute network traffic so that no one node becomes overloaded.
Since each node cluster member typically performs the same set of tasks as the other nodes in the node cluster, it is often desirable to perform the same management operations on all or many of the node cluster members at the same time. One difficulty in performing the same management operations on many node cluster members at the same time is that a network administrator may not always know which nodes are members to particular node cluster. Thus, a network administer may be required to spend time investigating exactly which nodes belong to the node cluster. Further complicating a network administrator's desire service multiple nodes in a node cluster is that not every node cluster member may have the same network connectivity. Therefore, the administrator may be faced with a situation where not every node in a node cluster can be serviced from a particular network location. These and other difficulties may require a network administrator to expend considerable time and effort servicing node clusters.